I’m not American. I’m Scottish and I wouldn’t trade that for anything… but I’ve said before, my dream job would be Sam’s in the West Wing – writing speeches for the President.
Obama’s speech writer is 26 years old Jon Favreau. That’s right, he’s 26. He obviously has one of the most gifted orators in the world to work with and Obama has huge input into the process, but to have a hand, or even a little finger in this shows real talent. Obama’s victory speech will, I think, come to be regarded with some of the great speeches of all time.
If you didn’t hear it, spend 15 minutes listening to what a political speech, a sermon, a lecture or a presentation should sound like:
Sat up watching it last night and I completely agree. Was a stunning speech, setting the perfect tone for the celebration while also being serious about the job in hand and really trying to be inclusive. It’s also worth mentioning John McCain’s speech. While it didn’t have the style or delivery of Obama’s, it was about as honest, fair and gracious a speech as I imagine anyone has ever given under those circumstances. What happened to that McCain in the campaign?!
The Republican Party. And Obama’s smart campaign. McCain was left with nowhere to go but right and he’s not comfortable there. That’s why Palin was picked. McCain was left (no pun intended) not knowing how to be himself and how to argue against ‘change’ when he wanted change too.
I watched this in the library the next morning (as I have no internet) and it took all my effort NOT to weep in a public place. Just one of the best speeches I’ve ever seen…to actually have a great speech in something you’re living through and not just in history is something very special.
I couldn’t quite put my finger on it until reading the reaction of a young boy to Obama’s speech. He saw Obama and said, “He looks sad.” And that was it. The boy didn’t realise that Obama was also going through the grief of having lost his grandmother; the lady who had put so much of herself into him. It was a powerful moving speech and made oh so human by the obvious conflict of emotions that you could see written on Obama’s face. It made me more impressed by him, more hopeful, and more supportive.
I asked my class to watch the speech as part of an exercise on values today and one of the things they noticed was that for a guy who just won an election he didn’t look very happy. Even though he mentioned the death of his grandmother in the speech it was so easy to get caught up in the emotion of the moment, the euphoria and hope and to forget his loss. Like you Peter, I think that makes it, and him, all the more remarkable.